Thomas Carter (composer)

Thomas Carter (May 1769 – 8 November 1800) was an Irish composer resident in London during the most creative years of his short life. Life Carter probably belonged to an extended family of Dublin musicians including, among others, Timothy Carter (c. 1715–1772) and (Charles) Thomas Carter (c. 1735–1804), with whose works his were often confused as both published music in London in the 1790s and used to abbreviate their name as “T. Carter”. Other sources suggest that he was an illegitimate son of the Earl of Inchiquin. He was born in Dublin and seems to have shown an exceptional musical talent since his childhood. Sponsored by the Earl of Inchiquin, he went to study music in Naples, around 1788, where he became a protégé of Sir William Hamilton. He then went to Calcutta, India, to become the theatre’s music director, but had to relocate to England in July 1789 for health reasons. He married Mary Wells from Cookham, Berkshire, in 1793. When he died in London at age 31, the Gentleman’s Magazine described him as “a victim, in early life, to the fatal ravages of the liver complaint”. Music In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980 edition), Roger Fiske made the first attem